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Friday, June 30, 2017

With all of the turmoil following the President it was easy
to overlook the selection of Lynne Patton to head HUD housing operations in the
New York
area. The choice has made
some news however because the individual selected has no experience
whatsoever with public housing and governmental housing policy. So here is some not-true news to explain the selection.

First some true news about the person.

Before Mr. Carson recommended her for
the role, Ms. Patton had been working as a senior adviser and director of
public engagement at the department for several months. Before that, she had no
experience in housing policy. Instead, she had worked closely with Mr. Trump’s
family for years as an event planner and assistant.

Ms. Patton helped coordinate some of Eric Trump’s wedding,
organized golf tournaments on the president’s courses, and was the vice
president of the Eric Trump Foundation. In her role at the foundation, she
oversaw its outreach and operations, planned fund-raisers and other functions,
and worked on the group’s social media presence.

Wow, but what about some background?

In a speech at last year’s Republican National
Convention, she noted that her father had been born in Birmingham,
Ala., and became a respected doctor at YaleUniversity.

Okay, we didn’t realize the fact that if a person’s father
was born in Alabama
and had become a respected doctor at Yale that qualified one to head up one of
the most important offices in the government.
So we went to Ms. Patton to ask about it and here is what she did not
say.

New York (Fake News Net) The person selected to run HUD
operations in New York
and surrounding area said today that she brings assets to the job that no one
else could. “I have extensive experience
planning big weddings” she said “and think of what this will mean for residents
of public housing. I can organize their
weddings, most of which will cost only $100,000 or so and make memories that
will last a lifetime. I can also help
them join country clubs, well not most Trump clubs because he doesn’t want
people living in public housing at places like Mar-a-Lago, but there are some
clubs that are not as restrictive. My
connections will get them discounted golf lessons.

Yep just the sort of person you would think would join Ben
Carson in his role to destroy government support of the housing market.

On his way out of Congress, Rep. Jason Chaffetz gave many
District residents another reason to gripe Tuesday when he called for members
of Congress to receive a housing stipend of up to $30,000 a year.

Chaffetz
(R-Utah), who chaired the committee that has oversight of the nation’s capital,
said federal lawmakers have trouble stretching their $174,000 salaries to cover
housing in Washington, which he called “one of the most expensive places in the
world,” and homes in their congressional districts.

Conservatives have often been portrayed as the whiniest of
politicians. And of course if low income
families said they should get $30 k a year for housing well we know who would
be flooding Fox News denigrating the freeloading worthless bastards that take
tax dollars from the rich to support their shiftless life style. Well conservatives meet a worthless bastard
who is one of you.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

After Nevada
Sen. Dean Heller came out against the Senate’s health care/tax cuts for the
wealthy bill he was attacked by Republican supporters in ads in that
state. The Senate leader seeing one of
his most vulnerable members about to be crushed
reacted thusly.

The majority leader —
already rankled by Mr. Trump’s tweets goading him to change Senate rules to
scuttle Democraticfilibusters—
called the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, to complain that the
attacks were “beyond stupid,” according to two Republicans with knowledge of
the tense exchange.

Unreliable reports on fake news said that far from being
insulted President Trump and his White House staff saw this as another
accomplishment, something to crow about.
They did not say that no one had ever gone beyond stupid in the
government since the second Bush administration and even then it took them
years. “We did it in a manner of months”
the President did not say on Fox Faux News, and “and no one is giving us credit
for it”.

For the most part the Conservative Party of Britain are nice
conservatives. They support the nation’s
comprehensive national health system and the previous Prime Minister support
gay marriage as a matter of principle.
But the recent election in Britain
took away the Conservatives’ majority and now they have
formed a union with a small Northern
Ireland party of hate to stay in power.

Of course what they really did was just buy them off.

“In
return, London pledged an extra £1 billion
($1.27 billion) of public spending in Northern Ireland over the next five
years in areas including infrastructure, education, health and economic
development. Mrs. Foster said the Conservatives also agreed to ditch proposals
on overhauling benefit payments for retirees that the DUP opposed.”

Who is the DUP? Well
strict anti-abortion and climate denial is their core identity. Sort of like Trump, without the charm.

The issue of whether or not the Dems should dump Nancy Pelosi as Minority Leader was illustrated over the weekend when she apparently did no public events campaigning against the GOP Tax Cut Bill for the Wealthy disguised as Health Care reform. Sen. Sanders, who not even a Democrat did haul his 70+ year old body out to fight the bill both in person and on TV political shows.

Ms. Pelosi is toxic, and it is not her fault she has been the target of right wing smears for lo these many years. But reality is reality. She should go, she is not part of the solution, she is part of the problem.

That civil rights violations take place in the nation’s
schools is not disputed, even by conservatives who hate civil rights
enforcements. But they are just not a
big deal to a billionaire appointed to head the Education Department. So
she will cut enforcement.

WASHINGTON — TheDepartment of Educationis scaling back investigations into
civil rights violations at the nation’s public schools and universities, easing
off mandates imposed by the Obama administration that the new leadership says
have bogged down the agency.

According to an internal memo issued byCandice E. Jackson, the acting head of the
department’s office for civil rights, requirements that investigators broaden
their inquiries to identify systemic issues and whole classes of victims will
be scaled back. Also, regional offices will no longer be required to alert
department officials in Washington
of all highly sensitive complaints on issues such as the disproportionate
disciplining of minority students and the mishandling of sexual assaults on
college campuses.

See, the problem is that is just not a priority for
Bets. She wants to gut public schools
and use tax dollars to fund religious schools, religious schools that support
her religion of course, others need not apply.

The CBO has issued a report on the impact of the Senate
Republican Tax Cut/Disguised as Health Care Bill. Republicans will say it lowers premiums and
produces better care. Here is what it really says.

GOP: We are not
cutting Medicaid

Truth from CBO: Medicaid
is Cut by More than $700 Billion

The largest savings would come from
reductions in outlays for Medicaid—spending on the program would decline in
2026 by 26 percent in comparison with what CBO projects under current law—and
from changes to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) subsidies for nongroup health
insurance

GOP: Premiums Will Go
Down

Truth from CBO: Next
Year Premiums Will Have Huge Increase

Under the
Senate bill, average premiums for benchmark plans for single individuals would
be about 20 percent higher in 2018 than under current law, mainly because the
penalty for not having insurance would be eliminated, inducing fewer
comparatively healthy people to sign up. Those premiums would be about 10
percent higher than under current law in 2019—less than in 2018 in part because
funding provided by the bill to reduce premiums would affect pricing and
because changes in the limits on how premiums can vary by age would result in a
larger number of younger people paying lower premiums to purchase policies.

GOP: Premiums Are
Skyrocketing Under Obamacare

Truth from CBO:
Obamacare markets with a few exceptions are stable and affordable.

Although
premiums have been rising under current law, most subsidized enrollees
purchasing health insurance coverage in the nongroup market are largely
insulated from increases in premiums because their out-of-pocket payments for
premiums are based on a percentage of their income; the government pays the
difference between that percentage and the premiums for a reference plan (which
is the second-lowest-cost plan in their area providing specified benefits). The
subsidies to purchase coverage, combined with the effects of the individual
mandate, which requires most individuals to obtain insurance or pay a penalty,
are anticipated to cause sufficient demand for insurance by enough people,
including people with low health care expenditures, for the market to be stable
in most areas.

GOP: Premiums Decline
With Their Bill

Truth from CBO:
Insurers will pay less, individuals will pay more.

That share
of services covered by insurance would be smaller because the benchmark plan
under this legislation would have an actuarial value of 58 percent beginning in
2020. That value is slightly below the actuarial value of 60 percent for
“bronze” plans currently offered in the marketplaces. Because of the ACA’s
limits on out-of-pocket spending and prohibitions on annual and lifetime limits
on payments for services within the EHBs, all plans must pay for most of the
cost of high-cost services. To design a plan with an actuarial value of 60
percent or less and pay for those high-cost services, insurers must set high
deductibles—that is, the amounts that people pay out of pocket for most types
of health care services before insurance makes any contribution. Under current
law for a single policyholder in 2017, the average deductible (for medical and
drug expenses combined) is about $6,000 for a bronze plan and $3,600 for a silver
plan. CBO and JCT expect that the benchmark plans under this legislation would
have high deductibles similar to those for the bronze plans offered under
current law. Premiums for a plan with an actuarial value of 58 percent are
lower than they are for a plan with an actuarial value of 70 percent (the
value for the reference plan under current law) largely because the insurance
pays for a smaller average share of health care costs.

So if upon reading this a person concludes that every
talking point of the Republicans on this bill is a lie, well, then you
understand the situation.

Monday, June 26, 2017

Otto Warmbier, 22, was in a coma when he was returned to his
family in Ohio last week after being held in North Korea
for nearly a year and a half. His death intensified political reaction to his
detention, with outraged critics calling it “murder.”

Now let's be perfectly clear. Mr. Warmbier's death is solely at the hands of the North Koreans. He is in no way responsible. But going forward any American who travels to North Korea, or Iran or Syria or a myriad of other places is doing so at their peril. Don't go, these people want to kill you.

Editors note: Because
the Senate leader did not explain why he kept the American people from knowing
what was in a health care bill that literally affected their life and death,
the DPE thought he would put words in the Senator’s mouth and explain things.

Warsaw, Ky (FNNNN)
Kentucky Senator and Majority leader Mitch McConnell today said that the
reason he kept the public from knowing the details of the Senate’s health care
legislation was that “The average citizen doesn’t understand this stuff. We in the Senate, that is we Republicans not
the other guys, have full knowledge about what is good for the wealthy and we
were elected to make sure those people did not suffer from paying taxes to help
middle and lower income families have decent care.”

McConnell went on to say that “Just because a person is sick
or injured doesn’t mean they should get treatment. The Constitution doesn’t say that promoting
the general welfare means regular people shouldn’t suffer from curable
diseases. It doesn’t say children must
get to see doctors and nurses when they need to and it certainly doesn’t say
that billionaires should pay taxes, and if they have to the Constitution
expressly prohibits those taxes helping non-billionaires” When asked about the billionaire reference
and where that was in the Constitution McConnell replied that “Just because something
is not stated explicitly in the Constitution doesn’t mean we can’t infer it if
that furthers our agenda of helping wealthy people get even more money”.

The Senator concluded his remarks by arguing that “Our coal
miners have lived for decades with sub par health due to lack of safety
concerns by coal mine owners and there is no reason the rest of the nation
shouldn’t follow the example set by the great state of Kentucky.”

Sunday, June 25, 2017

This Forum and a lot of other sources look upon modern
so-called conservatism as a danger to the health and prosperity of the
nation. But this is not a foregone
conclusion and in Tennessee Republicans who control the state have done a great
thing. They
have extended the right of young adults for education to providing for a
free 2 year diploma.

Candace Ogilvie, a counselor at Antioch High School in south Nashville, assists students and parents with the Tennessee Promise application process.CreditJoe Buglewicz for The New York Times

SMYRNA, Tenn. — A high school assembly changed
Nicole-Lynn Riel’s life.

In the fall of 2014, as Ms. Riel, a senior, was applying for
jobs at Red Lobster, J. C. Penney and Target, a speaker came to her school to
talk about a new state program, Tennessee Promise, that would pay the tuition
for all students at the state’s community colleges.

When the speaker said school would be free for everyone, Ms.
Riel said, she “perked up and said, ‘What?’”

This month, Ms. Riel graduated from MotlowStateCommunity College here,
and she will soon start working toward her bachelor’s degree at a four-year
school.

Yep, that is correct. And the program has benefited the
entire community.

Enrollment at community and
technology colleges for first-time freshmen has climbed by 30 percent. And a
majority of Tennessee Promise students who began at a community college in the
fall of 2015 were still in school this year, compared with fewer than half of
those who were not Promise recipients, according to the Tennessee Higher
Education Commission.

Of course national conservatives will recoil in horror at
such a program, it costs money and does not benefit the most wealthy of citizens. But now there is hope that decency and
compassion will overcome greed and hate.

Nearly 700 positions are vacant at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention because of a continuing freeze on hiring that
officials and researchers say affects programs supporting local and state
public health emergency readiness, infectious disease control and chronic
disease prevention.

The same
restriction remains in place throughout the Health and Human Services
Department despite the lifting of a government-wide hiring freeze last month.
At the National Institutes of Health, staff say clinical work, patient care and
recruitment are suffering.

Yep, can’t wait for
all those ‘more righteous than thou’ Trump voters to get sick and find out that
no, they cannot get help from the Feds.
But they won’t worry, after all the wealthy get a huge tax cut.

To see why the current status of the Democratic party in the
U. S. is one of almost unconsciousness
one need only consider the fact that 84 year old Senator Diane Feinstein of California may run for a
new term. If she does then there is another six years where young dynamic
leadership is blocked from moving into important electoral positions.

Sen. Feinstein would not be running to advance an
agenda. She would noy be leading the charge
for progressive legislation. She would
be running purely to continue the ego trip of being a United States
Senator. Ms. Feinstein is wealthy, and
wealth buys a lot of nice things, but wealth cannot buy political status. Only an election can accomplish that. So Sen. Feinstein may hold onto her Senate
seat solely for the perks of being a Senator.
The progressive agenda, that’s secondary.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

“We no longer have a party caucus capable of riding this wave. We have 80-year-old leaders and 90-year-old ranking members. This isn’t a party. It’s a giant assisted living center. Complete with field trips, gym, dining room and attendants.”

The United
States has the most private sector providers
of health care than any other major nation.
The result is that health care is expensive and spotty. Furthermore, state policies which deny access
to quality care by low income groups abound where Republicans control state
government

In 2005,23 US mothers per 100000
live birthsdied from
complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. In 2015, that number rose to
25. In the United Kingdom,
the number was less than 9. In Canada,
it was less than 7.

Very few
wealthy countries saw increases over those years. Many poorer countries,
including Iran and Romania, saw
declines. But here in the United
States, things got worse.

And the poster child for poor material care, Texas.

Last year, astudy published in Obstetrics
and Gynecologyfound
that the maternal mortality rate in the United States had increased by more
than 25% from 2000 to 2014. This trend differed by state, however. Although California had shown some declines, Texas had seen significant increases.’

Texas in particular has
been the focus of much of the news on maternal mortality in the last few years.
From 2011 to 2014, the rate doubled. Although we lack good data to tell us why,
many have postulated that changes to family planning in the state coincided
with this increase. In 2013, for example abouthalf
of the state’sclinicsthat provided abortion in addition to
other reproductive health services were closed because of regulations passed
against them.

In 2011, the family-planning budget was
slashed in an attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. Many clinics closed and
more were forced to reduce their services.

Family planning matters. About 50% of
pregnancies in the United
States are unplanned and mightlack
preventive carethat
properly planned-for pregnancies might.

The fire of a high rise in England killed as many as 58
people. And maybe it could have been
prevented.

In the wake of the
fire, it has emerged that the panels fitted to the outside of Grenfell Tower
during a substantial refurbishment in 2011 were the cheaper flammable version,
that cost £22 each, compared to the “fire-resistant” version which cost £24 each.
The total saving from using the non fire-resistant panels has been estimated at
around £6,000. There are also concerns that the addition of the panels to the
outside of the building created a “chimney effect” sending flames up the
outside of the building, spreading the fire faster.

No one knows why or how this happened. But if it turns out this was a failure of the
regulatory process of the state then those who want to destroy governmental
oversight need to take a good long look at themselves.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

The Dayton
News has a moving story about the horror of drug addiction. The family of Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor has been
fighting this horrific condition for years.

Both sons –
Joe, 26, and Michael, 23, — are now doing well, according to Taylor, though one remains in drug treatment.
But every step on the road into addiction, treatment and recovery was marked
with worry, anxiety and terror, she said.

There were so many traumatic
moments, Taylor
can’t even isolate one single event that stands out.

But what is newsworthy is the aspiring candidate for
Governor’s take on Medicaid. First of
all addiction is a huge problem in Ohio.

Ohio ranks number one in the
nation for unintentional drug overdoses. Despite investing almost $1 billion a
year to fight drug abuse and addiction, accidental overdoses claimed 3,050
lives in Ohio
in 2015, up 20.5 percent over 2014. Preliminary data from the Ohio Department
of Health shows 3,835 fatalities in 2016 — a 25.7 percent hike over 2015.

And Ms. Taylor has no plan to help things other than
meaningless platitudes and generalities.

Despite her
personal story and six-year service in the Kasich administration, Taylor does not yet have
a detailed plan on how she would fight the opioid epidemic if she is elected
governor.

“We need a comprehensive
solution and it’s going to involve the feds. It’s going to involve everybody,”
she said. “We need law enforcement, we need community activists, we need
churches and faith-based groups. A comprehensive solution is going to be just that.”

But she does have a firm opinion on Medicaid, and Medicaid
plays a key role in treatment.

A centerpiece to Kasich’s approach, however, is
opposed by Taylor.
Kasich initiated an expansion of Medicaid, made possible by Obamacare, and has
been accepting federal funds to serve an additional 715,000 low-income Ohioans,
including roughly 215,000 with drug abuse and addiction issues.

Ms. Taylor undoubtedly has the resources to pay for
treatment for his sons, maybe they are even covered by the government provided
group health care plan she probably gets.
But as far as anyone else is concerned, those who cannot pay, her
attitude is pretty Republican mainstream.
Screw You.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

A Decorated Veteran Will Not Be Intimidated by an Orange Haired Person Who Sat Out Military Service

The
WaPo and NYT have stories about how Donnie thinks he can threaten Mueller
with firing and thus get the former FBI Director to give Trump a favorable outcome
on the various investigations currently being undertaken.

A person who spoke with Trump on Tuesday
toldthe
New York Timesthat the president was pleased by the intentional ambiguity of
his position on firing Robert S. Mueller as special counsel, “and thinks the
possibility of being fired will focus the veteran prosecutor on delivering what
the president desires most: a blanket public exoneration.”

Really, the President of the United States can be this
clueless? Look at Mueller’s background.

Mueller, 72, earned a Purple Heart and a
Bronze Star with Valor for his gallantry in Vietnam before devoting most of the
rest of his life to public service. Trump, 71, avoided military service by
claiming a medical deferment for “heel spurs,” and he’s said that his “personal Vietnam” was
avoiding sexually-transmitted diseases while sleeping around in New York. “I feel like a
great and very brave solider," the president once told Howard Stern.

Remember how the Muslim travel ban was necessary to respond
to an immediate threat, that terrorists were streaming into the nation. Well first of all the administration did not
appeal the first court ruling against the ban and instead drafted a new
ban. And now instead of hurrying before
the Supreme Court the
Trumpster is saying wait a minute, no big deal, no big hurry.

The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday
to give the Trump administration more time to explain why the high court should
take up the case of the president’s embattled travel ban.

In a letter sent earlier in the
day, Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall proposed a change to the expected
briefing schedule to allow it to formulate a response to an opinion issued Monday by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Justice Department's maneuver
risks delaying Supreme Court consideration of the case until October, inviting
administration critics to question whether the sense of urgency that inspired
Trump's travel ban is shared by the lawyers who are defending it.

So once again the Trump people are exposed for what they
are. And everybody knows what they are.

Monday, June 19, 2017

On
Twitter Sunday Donald said he appreciated his children Eric, Don Jr.,
Ivanka and ‘that other one’. When
asked about getting only three names Press Secretary said that ‘this was
75% and that was much more than any other President had ever done on
Father’s Day.

A
secret decoder ring was found which allows the holder to get into the
meetings the Republican Senators are having to craft a health care/tax cut
for the wealthy bill. The ring
apparently does not work as the finder attended several meetings and
reported they were pure gibberish.

In
order to promote harmony in the House the Speaker Paul Ryan invited Nancy
Pelosi over for dinner. “Just bring
anything you like and you can heat it up in the microwave” he apparently
did not say, adding “I’ll have my girl set it up with your girl”.

The
Republican controlled Senate passed a bill that gives the Congress control
over the lifting of sanctions against Russia in defiance of Trump.
The Senate based its vote on the certainty that Secretary of State
Tillerson would convince the House not to go along, and instead let Russia
name the next head of the Republican National Committee.

Trump
announced he was being investigated for firing James Comey, then his
attorney said he was not being investigated but took it back after the
Washington Post said he was being investigated. “If the Post says it, it must be true”
Trump’s attorney said, “I mean, they got everything else right”.

In a
poll just released 2% of American voters said that Trump was violating the
emoluments clause of the Constitution and 98% said they thought the word ‘emoluments’
was a misspelling of the word monuments.

O. J.
Simpson will be let out of jail early to search the Trump golf courses to
find the person who decided to fire James Comey. “I won’t rest even if I have to play
every course” Simpson did not say.

Trump wants to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure but he
doesn’t want to spend any money because his highest priority is tax cuts for
people like Trump, that is wealthy people.
So
his first step will be to try and put Air Traffic Control into a private
company, something that does nothing to address the problems of air travel.

President
Trump will seek to put a spotlight on his vows to privatize the nation’s air
traffic control system and spur $1 trillion in new investment in roads,
waterways and other infrastructure with a weeklong series of events starting
Monday at the White House. . . .

The
president has invited executives from major airlines to join him as he kicks
off the week with one of his more controversial plans: spinning off the air
traffic control functions of the Federal Aviation Administration to a nonprofit
corporation.

Note the disconnect here.
The goal is to invest in roads, waterways etc; the action is to change
management of air traffic.

Now there is plenty wrong with air travel, and the air
traffic system could certainly use investment in new systems. But the main problem is greedy monopolistic
airlines that make air travel excruciatingly painful and insufficient airport
resources. But fixing that would mean
more anti-trust regulation and more spending, two things Republicans don’t want
to do. And Trump of course flies
private, none of the horrors of air travel have ever affected him.

So the solution is to spend nothing, make a big PR splash
and for Trump, hopefully take the spotlight away from what everyone expects will
be devastating new info about his abuses.

A great success story is the state of Virginia.
The home of the Confederacy and bastion of school segregation up until
the 1970’s the state is now a moderately progressive tolerant home to a diverse
population and strong economy. But that
doesn’t mean that leftover racism does
not rear its ugly head.

The gathering of several
dozen protesters in Charlottesville,
Va., was led byRichard
B. Spencer, a prominent white supremacist, who posted pictures and
video from the gathering to social media that showed a phalanx of demonstrators
holding Confederate battle flags and a banner proclaiming, “We will not be
replaced.” Their chants, some of which were captured on video, included “Russia is our
friend” and the Nazi-era slogan “blood and soil.”

The good news is that this event was news in the sense that
it was unusual. The bad news, these
people are flourishing in a world where racism is becoming more
acceptable. The worst news, under Trump
and his minions this sort of thing is likely to grow and prosper. They almost won the Republican primary for Governor.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Ed Sec
Betsy (I am a billionaire, I don’t do public education) said in a hearing
that it would be up to states to decide if federal law which prohibits
discrimination would be enforced.
She went on not to say “I grew up in a prejudiced and bigoted
household and had the benefit of private education. If I had gone to public schools I might
have not been able to develop my sense of privilege and my biases. Many parents today are decent,
compassionate and fair minded people so if we expect kids to become
bigoted and prejudiced adults they are going to have to learn it in
private schools like I did.”

Speaking
of Donnie, apparently he told the Pope that he would not forget what the
Pope told him. In a surprising development what the
Pope actually said was not leaked to the press because, as the White House
staff pointed out, Trump forgot what it was the Pope said.

Ben
Carson, the first Secretary of Housing dedicated to eliminating decent
housing for low income families has said that poverty is a state of
mind. So it does no good to help
these people, they just want to be poor.

The
NYT has reported that Trump will disregard his pledge to donate his
foreign profits to charity. Trump
is reported to be furious this story is out there because as he is saying in
private he doesn’t donate any profits from
his domestic businesses either so what’s the big deal. As for going back on an earlier promise,
Trump did not say, “C’mon, that’s what I do. Haven’t
you people figured that out yet?”

Saturday, June 17, 2017

In a rare bi-partisan agreement the Senate wants to make
sure the Trumpie doesn’t give away the store to Russia. The Senate is ready to pass a law making it
much more difficult for Donnie to kiss up to Russia and relax penalties that the
Obama folks place on the Kremlin for all sorts of bad things. But
the Secretary of State, obviously seeking to suck up to Donnie doesn’t want
that, and the House, formerly a bastion of a hard line on Russia may go along.

As the Senate gears up to
pass a bipartisan deal to punish Russia and restrict President
Donald Trump from any attempt to ease sanctions, his administration and House
Republicans are signaling that the agreement has a shaky future.

Senators in both parties have
urged Trump to avoid leveling any veto threat on the Russia
sanctions deal that's on track for passage Wednesday, which sets up a congressional review process if the
president decides to ease or remove penalties against Moscow.

But Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson said Tuesday that the agreement to get tough on Russia would shut off communications with Moscow that he'd like to
keep open for now.

Gosh, how did Tillerson run Exxon/Mobil with his spine
removed?

Update: The Senate passed the measure, hugely, but the House will probably kill it, don't want to hurt Putie's feelings, do we?

Coal mine safety regulations have been largely gutted by
mine operators, and several years ago the result was an accident that killed a
whole lot of miners and, get this, actually sent the company President to jail
for almost one whole year. The regulations
were strengthened up President Obama, who unlike the current President actually
was doing something to help miners.

Among other changes, the MSHA rule approved in
2013 would stop mine operators from using appeals of safety citations to avoid
tougher enforcement and do away with MSHA warning letters that gave companies
additional time to improve before facing enforcement.” Prior to the April 2010
explosion at Upper Big Branch, mine owner Massey Energy had avoided being
classified as a pattern violator by appealing hundreds of violations, clogging
up the government’s appeals system, and because of MSHA inaction the agency
later blamed on a computer programming error.

So the mine
owners sued. And now the owners and the Trump
administration are going to try and settle the lawsuit.

“Rather than concurrently litigating and negotiating a possible
settlement of the dispute, the parties are open to negotiating a mutually
agreeable resolution that could avoid further litigation,” saidthe joint motion, filed earlier this month in
U.S. District Court in Columbus.

The joint filing
indicated that lawyers for the industry and the government had met on May 1 and
agreed that settlement negotiations “were sufficiently promising to warrant a
stay of this litigation.”

“The parties have since
discussed their commitment to a structured series of conferences to consider a
negotiated resolution,’ the joint filing said.

Murray Energy, whose
CEO, Bob Murray, has been an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump and
the elimination of Obama-era regulations he says are harming the coal industry,
is pleased that the litigation has been stayed so that a settlement can be
negotiated, a spokesman said."

Anybody want to guess how this is going to turn out?Anybody?And it is important because the coal mining states now under Republican
control are abdicating their safety regulating job and leaving it up to the
Feds.So as soon as the suit is settled
in favor of coal mine owner, the killing of coal miners can continue.

In his testimony before the Senate the saintly and demure and
bigoted Attorney General of the United
States
was outraged that anyone should suggest his meetings with a Russian Ambassador
in private while Sessions was a key part of the Trump campaign was in any way
improper.

WASHINGTON —
Attorney General Jeff Sessions offered an indignant defense on Tuesday against
what he called “an appalling and detestable lie” that he may have colluded with
the Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 election, but he declined during an
often contentious Senate hearing to answer central questions about his or
President Trump’s conduct.

Of course the fact that Sessions had not disclosed that
meeting and in fact lied about having it until the WaPo found out about should
in no way give anyone cause to think he was lying now.

After realizing that cutting taxes and spending was an
insane policy with respect to economic growth and prosperity the conservative
Republicans that control the Kansas
legislature voted to override a veto and raise taxes. This infuriated the tax-cuts-no-matter -what-the-cost radical conservatives who write editorials for the WSJ. Of course none of them live in Kansas where the
devastating spending cuts did not balance the budget and harmed education,
infrastructure and made the state inhospitable to business.

The
press accounts gleefully talk of how “moderate Republicans” joined with
Democrats to raise taxes to address exploding state deficits. But substitute
“Republicans backed by teachers unions” for moderate Republicans, and the real
picture comes into focus. At bottom the Kansas
tax vote was as much about unions getting even with the Governor over his
education reforms, which included making it easier to fire bad teachers.

That’s right, teacher unions, who have zero influence in the
Republican party are to blame.
Incredible. The truth of course
is that all but the most radical of conservatives saw the policy was failing,
failing badly. So having to answer to
voters rather than the elitist of the eastern Republican establishment the GOP
faced reality and fixed some of the broken policy. As for the WSJ, well they can’t handle the
truth, can they?

A while back the Washington Post took a ride with Rep. James Comer (R,
Ky) as he visited his congressional district.
They
found out this.

“That was the friendliest town hall
in the world,” Comer said as he walked out, and now he was in the car with his
district director, saying of Trump, “He’s still so popular.”

It was raining, and he was heading
west through some of the most rural parts of his district.

“I saw some poll, nine out of 10
people who voted for Trump still would,” he said. “I think that’s true here.
That’s my assessment of the attitudes.”

The sad part, this part of Kentucky is an economic disaster.

Comer’s congressional district is a
horseshoe across the southern part of the state, 6 ½ hours by car
end-to-end, that is 90 percent white and where nearly 1 in 5 people live
in poverty, more than 1 in 6 are disabled, and 72 percent voted for Trump.

The even sadder part, Trump policy will make these people’s
lives worse, not better. Far worse.
Maybe even fatal if health care is taken away from many of them. Comer went to Washington to take away people’s health
insurance.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) leaves the McLean County Courthouse in Calhoun, Ky., on May 12, 2017, after a town hall. (Michael Noble Jr./For The Washington Post)

In the future those deserted streets will be the result of less health care and more dead people.

He said the ACA had deepened
the problems in Kentucky
by opening up such wide access to Medicaid, the health-care program for
low-income Americans. He said so many had signed up across the state that
nearly 1 in 3 were now covered under that program — and receiving free
coverage. Some of those people, he said, desperately needed that help. But many
were feeding off the system.

“If you live here, you know
somebody who looks like me, is on Medicaid, and is just not working,” he said.

Think about that quote and the reasoning (?) behind it. Increasing access to Medicaid “deepened the
problems in Kentucky”. Wow.
The feds paid for the expansion, hundreds of thousands of people now
have health care and in the mind of this cruel conservative that made things
worse. And the highlight of Comer's term in Washington, no not passing legislation to help people, it was riding in Air Force One. Yes, it's all about him, nothing about the people. What a turd.

One hopes the people of Kentucky and other areas that blindly
support Trump will one day open their lives before it is too late in many ways,
including too late because their eyes are closed permanently by lack of health
care.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

In a remarkable action, Trump’s lawyer has apparently filed a
complaint against Comey for his releasing information about his conversations with
the President. On the blog Take Care, Peter
Shane* just destroys that position.

First there is this.

"The executive branch has long
conceded that withholding information probative of possible executive branch
wrongdoing should not be withheld from Congress. Moreover, the
presidential interest in the confidentiality of his conversations was likely
weakened by his own public discussion of their content. The only way the
competing interests could have been authoritatively adjudicated, however, would
be if privilege had been claimed, Mr. Comey had decided to honor it, and the
Senate or one of its committees had sued Mr. Comey to compel his testimony."

And here is the real killer.

"There is no law prohibiting someone in
conversation with the President from revealing that conversation to third
parties without the President's consent. We are in the realm of norms,
not statutes.

Of
course, one could well imagine that the unauthorized disclosure of a
confidential presidential conversation would be a fireable offense if committed
by any federal officer serving at the pleasure of the President. Unfortunately
for the President, he had fired Mr. Comey before the unauthorized
disclosure. There is no presidential privilege to fire the same person
twice." (emphasis added)

Over at DOJ where the complaint against Comey is to be
received the laughter can probably be heard all the way to the White
House. And hey Mr. Trump, here’s some
advice. Get yourself a real lawyer.

* Peter M. Shane is the Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law at the Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, where he regularly teaches administrative law, law and the presidency, and courses at the intersection of law, democracy, and new media. Named a Distinguished University Scholar in 2011, he is the author of over fifty law review articles and book chapters, as well as author, co-author or editor of eight books, including leading casebooks in both administrative law and separation of powers law. In 2008-09, Peter served as executive director to the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, and was the lead drafter of its report, Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age (2009).

His most recent books include Cybersecurity: Shared Risks, Shared Responsibilities (with Jeffrey Hunker, Carolina Academic Press, 2013), and Connecting Democracy: Online Consultation and the Future of Democratic Discourse (with Stephen Coleman, MIT Press, 2012). An earlier volume on transparency and national security is A Little Knowledge: Privacy, Security and Public Information After September 11 (with John Podesta and Richard C. Leone, Century Foundation Press, 2004).

Here's to All the Women and Children Who Get
Health Care From the Program But May Not in the Future

A large number of health care providers and other decent
people were horrified by House health care legislation that slashed Medicaid
spending, spending which helps those who simply cannot afford health care. Now it turns out some Senators have upped the
ante in the ‘Cruelty Sweepstakes’ and are
trying to cut Medicaid bigger and faster.

Conservative
Senate Republicans are weighing faster and steeper cuts to Medicaid that could
drop millions of people from coverage and mark the biggest changes to the
program in its 52-year history.

And those conservatives currently in control of the states
want to make it more difficult and more humiliating for those eligible to get
benefits.

Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker plans to ask the Trump administration for a waiver that would
require some Medicaid applicants to undergo drug testing and other
restrictions. Maine Gov. Paul LePage wants work requirements and time limits on
coverage.

They aren’t alone. States including Arizona
and Florida
are weighing requests to impose similar changes such as work requirements for
enrollees. Those moves are separate from the health-care legislation now moving
through Congress.

Think about that one provision Maine has in mind. Term limits on coverage. In short, if you don't get well in a time period the government sets, that's it. No more treatment. Good grief.

The mind doth boggle at the cruelty, the hatred of low
income people and the tremendous damage such policies would do. And guess what, it won’t save money. Those people kicked out of Medicaid will
still get a lot of health care, just in an inefficient manner, with more
suffering and the bill being paid for in higher premiums for the rest of the
population.